With New Round of Clinic Closures Looming - Abortion Rights Freedom Ride Steps up Resistance and Responds to Attacks"When it comes to abortion, there is only one moral question: Will women be forced to have children against their will or will they be treated as full human beings, able to decide for themselves when and whether to have a child." -Sunsara Taylor, initiator of the Stop Patriarchy movement.On Aug. 13, eleven activists with the Abortion Rights Freedom Ride put their bodies on the line by blocking traffic in front of Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s mansion. This was the day of closing arguments in the nationally watched HB2 trial - a law that could leave all of Texas with only 6 clinics on September 1st. The activists braved arrest, brutality and harassment from the police to shine a spotlight on a national abortion rights emergency, and to model what is urgently needed right now: determined, unapologetic resistance against a movement that seeks to reduce women to breeders.StopPatriarchy.org (working with and taking direction from an Advisory Board which includes Merle Hoffman, Diane Derzis, Carol Downer, Mary Lou Singleton, and Wendy Robinson, nationally significant and pioneering abortion providers) conceived of the Abortion Rights Freedom Ride: Ground Zero Texas as an initiative that would contribute to forging a national resistance that tells the truth: the fight over abortion has never been about babies, it has always been about control over women.Their weekly webcasted “People’s Hearings” have brought jarring testimony from women and men, from pre and post Roe generations, to expose the life and death stakes of abortion being inaccessible. Their powerful “Stop Forced Motherhood” statement, signed by prominent public figures such as Gloria Steinem, Cornel West, Mark Ruffalo, Eve Ensler and many more, appeared in the Austin Statesman the opening day of the HB2 Trial. And their weekly protests have given new strength and spirit to this fight, which could not be ignored by both local and national press - and broke through with the clarity of “Abortion on Demand & Without Apology” and “Forced Motherhood is Female Enslavement”, which was seen by many thousands.While the statement against forced motherhood made clear, “courageous people are doing important work to keep abortion available,” it went on to say, “At the same time, it must be confronted soberly: much more is needed.” and concluded with a call to action: “This is a time for courage. For people to defy fear, to shatter silence, and to break their isolation. To refuse to wait for politicians or courts to make our will known. To raise our voices and fill the streets, to make art and wage protest, to defend doctors and assist women, to change hearts and enlighten minds. To engage in acts of militant non-violent direct action. To call forth thousands and soon millions until we have STOPPED these attacks and DEFEATED this war on women.”Precisely because their approach of linking this fight directly to the struggle for women's liberation challenges and breaks out of a whole conciliatory approach of seeking “common ground” or seeking to “reframe” abortion not as an issue of women's liberation but instead as simply a general matter of “personal privacy,” “choice,” or “healthcare,” it is not surprising that they have stoked controversy.However, it is frankly shocking that "progressive" media outlets have extended the platform to Klabusich to write a piece of “journalism” against Stop Patriarchy. She is someone who has made it her personal mission to distort and destroy the Abortion Rights Freedom Ride (ARFR) and those associated with. Everything about Katie and her article is disingenuous and dishonest as pertains to the ARFR. Even the title, which acts as if she is “objectively” reporting on an accusation, is one that she herself has whipped up. Further, it is a baseless accusation – Stop Patriarchy has said that “forced motherhood is female enslavement”, not equated it to literal chattel slavery of Black people in the US. At the same time, she has refused to have an open dialogue/debate with Sunsara Taylor, initiator of Stop Patriarchy. Responding directly to Klabusich and her “Texans for Reproductive Justice's” (TX4RJ) accusation of racism for daring to invoke the legacy of the original Civil Rights Freedom Ride, Taylor has stated, “We are drawing inspiration from the original Freedom Ride, not seeking to “own” it. Besides, I'd rather invoke the legacy of freedom fighters than slave-owners,” a reference to the fact that the TX4RJ website is emblazoned with the flag of the Texas Republic, a flag which symbolizes the theft of land from Mexico and the expansion of slavery in the U.S.In addition, Klabusich continues to actively align with people who have threatened physical violence on members of Stop Patriarchy and promise to disrupt events. She also gives credence to someone who proudly tweeted close up photos of a teenage member of the Abortion Rights Freedom Ride, labeling her "islamophobic" in the midst of a Gaza solidarity demonstration! (This because Stop Patriarchy – the organization, not the teenage volunteer! – dared to send a tweet that compared Christian fundamentalism to Islamic fundamentalism, a comparison which they stand by). Again, it is not at all surprising that things are polarizing sharply. Such is the case every time things really come to a head at a watershed moment. Different roads emerge and people fight for different directions.The danger here, however, is that Klabusich is NOT putting forward her vision and neither is Texans for Reproductive Justice, the group Klabusich helped initiate and then attempted to “report” on. Instead, all they are doing is wrecking. No one can learn anything from this and in fact this is how people get driven away, and scared off from doing anything at all, precisely at a moment when so much is on the line.As the Advisory Board said early on (and it is noteworthy that Klabusich and her TX4RJ have NEVER responded to or even acknowledged the substance of this full statement):“Seeking to drive sincere forces out of the movement is destructive and has no place in a liberation struggle... We ourselves hold very different political views and have many robust arguments; this is a strength... In contrast, attempts to create a situation where sincere forces and legitimate political views are rendered 'beyond the pale' and 'personas non grata' is wrong and very damaging. It demoralizes and weakens our side, creates an atmosphere of distrust, serves those who hate women, and obscures the actual and important differences of substance and approach.”Stop Patriarchy's refusal to be cowed by these attacks called forth greater strength and clarity from many who report having felt “muzzled” for decades, as Mary Lou Singleton, licensed midwife and nurse practitioner, and founder of Personhood for Women, explains in her piece: “I was warned about Stop Patriarchy.” For her part, Diane Derzis, owner of the last abortion clinic in Mississippi, explained to the Dallas Observer why she is working actively with the Abortion Rights Freedom Ride: "We became far too reliant upon courts to maintain the status quo, while our enemy is in the trenches with these churches raising money, raising time, electing people...I think it's time starting thinking outside the box, because what we've been doing has not been working."All this underscores the preciousness of forces like the Abortion Rights Freedom Ride, its Advisory Board, and the growing list of signers to the statement/ad who are training their sites where they need to be: on the intensifying emergency and the tremendous urgency for all of us to step up right now. They have demonstrated great courage and tremendous principle and are going forward with this – putting themselves on the line once more in a battle that will shape the future not only for women in TX but for the direction of the whole country.Stop Patriarchy has called for a nationwide “Week of Defiance” from Aug. 25 - Sept. 1, centered around an encampment every day outside Governor Rick Perry's mansion, and calling for people to bring “your body, your art, your voice, your friends, and your determination to reshape the future.” It is hard to think of a single moment in the history of this country since the Hyde Amendment that threatened a greater leap backwards for the lives and conditions for women than this current juncture in Texas.This is the time to act, not to tear down others who are fearlessly putting their bodies on the line, but to join with them in acting – in pushing with everything we've got, to divert the stream of history. If not now, when?

Who is stop patriarchy?

Stop Patriarchy is a group for everyone who wants to FIGHT to STOP the enslavement of women. Not politely lobby against it. Not grumble at the TV. Not simply post things on Twitter. And definitely not sit around waiting for those in power to “come to their senses.” It is also a movement for everyone who can be won to see the need for this – we are fighting aggressively to change minds and to grow and deepen and escalate until we succeed in changing everything. JOIN US!